[FredZarguna]

What's with the kilometers? Pluto was discovered by an American. It should be 12,600 miles.

So ... Americans should use a system formalized by an imperial power we cast off in 1776, rather than an international system we use in physics, chemistry, biology, electrical engineering (and many others) first introduced by our first ally in 1799?

Kinda reminds me of those feminists who "fight the patriarchy" by hyphenating their husband's names with their father's...

[Organic Panic]

[Verginius Rufus]

I don't know why the English-language version of the Wikipedia article implies that the metric system dates to 1799. The German-language and Spanish-language versions both say 1793.

France was not our ally in 1799--that was during the period of the so-called Quasi-War or Undeclared Naval War with France. The French government in 1793 wasn't exactly friendly either--they had chopped the head off of King Louis XVI, our ally in the Revolutionary War. Washington had proclaimed US neutrality in the war France was fighting in Europe.

The metric system is based on earth measurements--a kilometer was originally one ten-thousandth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. That is meaningless in cosmic terms.

In any case, my original comment was tongue-in-cheek.